Accessibility without concessions

The mental and physical fitness of residential care facility residents can vary from day to day. Whereas today they may be able to open and close their home entrance door as they are used to, tomorrow this may be too difficult or even forgotten. This can compromise accessibility and/or keeping out fellow residents. A door closer might seem to offer relief in this case, but with an average opening force of around 30 to 40 Newtons, it is often too heavy for the target group. This is why GEZE developed the Powerturn; an automatic door operator that guarantees optimum accessibility and safety at any time of the day and in any situation. Simple, light and without concessions.

GEZE is a German family company with 160 years of experience in producing solutions in door, window and safety technology. The company is the market leader in Germany, where it is located near Stuttgart with a large development and production site. This is also where the GEZE Powerturn is produced. "With the Powerturn, we offer a unique solution for all doors that must be easy to open, but must also close safely again after each opening, for example in combination with access control," says Ronald van Driel, Sales Manager Netherlands at GEZE. "With this innovation, we are actually introducing a self-closing free swing door closer, which is perfectly suited for care homes, for example. The Powerturn can be easily and quickly installed on residents' home entrance doors and is adaptable in terms of settings to the current requirements. Care staff can decide per day or even per part of the day which functions are most suitable for which residents: self-opening and closing, self-opening and automatic closing or automatic opening and closing. This allows residents to maintain their own control for as long as possible, without negatively affecting accessibility and safety."

The GEZE Powerturn offers an optimum in fire safety, burglary protection and privacy, says Van Driel. "Without making concessions to the accessibility of the care home. Various studies endorse that seniors with poor mental health, for example, benefit from recognizable actions. Also when it comes to home access. After all, recognizability provides footing and peace of mind. Yet at the same time, residents may need to be supported in their actions. Therefore, the integrated smart swing function in the Powerturn enables a recognizable manual passage without resistance. In the drive of the Powerturn there is a fully pre-tensioned spring, which guarantees maximum freedom of use at all times. Because the spring is not constantly moving through the housing, wear and tear is reduced and the Powerturn continues to operate silently for a long time. Occupants are activated to act "like home" for as long as possible, without having to exert physical force. An integrated self-closing function then helps to close 'forgotten' doors after all."

The functions of the GEZE Powerturn can be easily adjusted in the building management system or with a physical program switch, says Van Driel. "In this way we create a completely flexible concept, which matches resident needs and care indication at any time. It is no longer necessary to replace door switches or even move residents to another room if their mental and physical fitness changes. Residents can remain in their familiar surroundings for as long as possible."

Thanks to its powerful drive system and advanced smart swing technology, the Powerturn also allows easy opening and careful closing of doors with high wind loads, high under- or overpressure and/or heavy doors (<600 kg). "With this, we offer a solution of the very highest quality for every door in the building." 

The benefits in a nutshell:

- Three drive forms in one, applicable simultaneously thanks to a preloaded spring:

- Smart Swing for manual operation of the door with minimal resistance.

- Servo for motorized support during manual door opening.

- Fully automatic for fully non-contact door opening and closing.

- ITs solution in all situations; minimal resistance for opening, self-closing for e.g. access control.

- Very powerful; suitable for doors up to 600 kg or 1,600 mm door width.

- Easy to install in any design thanks to a minimum hood height of 7 cm.

- Large free passage with an opening angle of up to 136°.

- EN16005 without unexpected additional cost; force gradient adjustable without accessories.